Part two of Capture the flag arrives… ;)
Spacman- I'm so glad you like it J
Cherry Trabbit- I'm glad you think this is awesome!
MyDimension- My goodness, you love reviewing this thing, don't you? XD I'm happy I'm bringing it back too, writer's block is terrible.
Shout-out to Mage-Pages who helped me figure out some stuff for later on in the story!
Rythian Pov
I race to cabin twenty, grab my new sword, and try to remember the basic moves I learned today. Feint, slash, duck-and-stab, block, use the hilt to catch the opponent's blade… Oh gods, I was so screwed.
"Gods, Rythian, get changed quick. You don't want to get smores on enchanted armour, trust me." Renara barks. I jump a bit and go to the guy's side of the room, getting into a new mask, shirt, pants, etc. I try and grab the darkest clothes possible, because the forest will be dark- and I want to avoid any unnecessary fights.
"Here." Renara says bluntly, sounding royally ticked off as she tosses me a set of bronze armour glowing with what Lalna would probably call black light, but I guess is an enchantment of sorts. I never did like science class.
I pull it on and follow her out the door as she mutters under her breath about how Lou something would disown her for hating her husband's cabin and that she since is counsellor now so they may as well forget it. I was pretty sure I heard a few comments about "Stupid, idiotic boys, can't judge if something's important or not" and such.
The moment we arrive Renara splits off with a clipped "When the conch sounds, find me." And disappears into the crowd.
I glance around. Minty, Kim, Kaeyi and Beckii are admiring Lomadia's weapon before the Jackson girl heads of to help her brothers. I kind of enjoy seeing Lalna's face turn red when he's referred to as Lomadia's 'little' brother.
A flash of red and a cute laugh make me turn my head slightly and see Zoeya, a simple bow hanging over her shoulder, split off from Teep and scan the crowd before locking her eyes on Lalna.
Oh gods no…
I debate internally on whether to interrupt her before she can talk to the blonde boy, but I'm interrupt by a girl's voice.
"Rythian, right? Your armour's a bit crooked on the shoulders. Mind if I fix it?" I turn my head to see the girl who Kaeyi was hanging with earlier- Bella? - No, Belle; giving me a shy smile.
"It is? I didn't know… No problem." I say, still partially distracted by Zoeya heading steadily towards my frenemy.
Belle steps closer and fiddles with the straps for a minute; then tugs one last time and steps away, turning to face me.
"Thanks." I say, tearing my gaze away from where a certain red-headed girl is.
"No problem, it was a bit obvious." Belle says; her smile is a bit less shy now. She follows my gaze to where Zoeya and Lalna are conversing. "Speaking of obvious…"she tilts her head towards my crush.
"Sorry?" I ask, confused. She couldn't possibly know.
"You know what I mean." He said, twirling a dark curl between her fingers, inclining her head towards first towards me, and then nodding ever so slightly down at herself, then at the mushroom girl and the blonde scientist.
I freeze for a moment, confused at what she was implying, but was distracted (stupid ADHD) by a tugging from my mind's-eye, so to speak. I could almost see Belle standing in it, surrounded by the glowing colors of a sunset-except the colors were too rich to be there normally. I focused, and as my mind replayed her words-You know what I mean." I could almost picture the colors sharpening, turning into- no, my gut said, she's-
In my normal vision, Belle smiled brightly. "Admit it, they do make a cute-"Her words are cut off by the conch, saving me from the feeling that something wasn't right. Like, seriously wrong. I scan the field and spot Renara jogging steadily into the woods behind the Nick dude and some others.
-Sorcery, Rythian that was-. My instincts whisper in my mind (Is that a child of Hecate thing? To automatically know about magic stuff?) As I follow my assigned group. I nearly run into my group when they stop and I don't notice right away. I pause, and then turn to the others.
There's an Athena girl, Ashley, and Lomadia and Xephos, the Nick dude, Renara and I.
"Alright, we've modified our plans, so Rythian, Xephos and Lomadia can join us. It doubles our number, but that could be a good thing. Just follow us, I guess, we're heading into enemy territory." Ashley says. "Renara, no killing Nick. Nick, you'd better have those stink bombs or I'll let Renara have a go at you. Xephos, I hope you have better luck than our last Nike camper."
Renara flinches visibly and so does Nick. Xephos frowns, confused. Ashley just sprints off into the forest, not slowing until we splash into the creek. Renara signals that we should freeze and stay quiet. She scans the far side of the creek, then motions that we should move on. Xephos nearly stumbles on a submerged rock, but Lomadia steadies him and pushes forwards, seemingly unhampered by the swift current.
We follow what is hardly a path, quite possibly just a monster's trail, and skirt through the darkened forest until we reach a fairly large clearing, with a sunken depression in the middle. In the middle was the red team's flag, carelessly left lying in the dirt. A group of guys and girls sat around the edges of the clearing, not even keeping guard as they talked. Most weren't even wearing armour.
"Okay, you're right." Nick said glumly, tossing a golden coin at Ashley. She stuffed it in her pocket.
"Athena cabin's always got a plan, and this was easy." The blonde said easily, her voice dropping to a whisper. We follow her example.
"How so?" Lomadia asked curiously.
"Derik's head of the Ares cabin, but he prefers to just fight. He always chooses an offensive strategy, and he hardly had a good team, in all honesty. He probably took his cabin and went after our flag, leaving the other cabins to guard. Aphrodite had the second most campers for this team, so it would be them hiding the flag." She paused for breath, shifting her weight a bit. "I figured this out because Beckii's going to be showing the new girls the ropes-meaning she'll be along the creek not far from us. I've sent Lalna, Nilesy and some of your friends to distract them as much as possible while we track down the flag. With Beckii looking after the newbies, she'll leave it up to her cabin to hide the flag- and here was a spot where one of cabin ten's most famous counsellors finally showed her love for someone-a guy called Beckendorf, head of cabin nine. The girl was Silena Beauregard. Her and your parents, Lomadia, reactivated a bronze dragon-a huge camp legend- to save Beckendorf from Myrmekes. Pretty much giant ant monsters. But since all you legacies just came to camp, I know their cabin probably went back and looked at all those old dramas. So they hid it here."
Xephos whistled quietly between his teeth. "That's pretty intense. But it makes sense."
Lomadia and I nod. "So-"We both start, but she breaks off to let me speak.
"Thanks. So our plan is?"
Lomadia grinned. "Just what I was gonna say."
"We split up into two groups. Xephos, you should have natural fast fighting and thinking skills. You, Lomadia and I are going to grab that flag and high-tail it back to the creek. Rythian, you'll join Nick and Renara on their plan. You'll be distracting them from us and after we leave, Nick has smoke and stink bombs. You'll set them off and catch up to us." Ashley tells us, her voice never coming above a whisper.
Nods are exchanged as we split up silently. I tread carefully, making sure not to snap a fallen branch under my feet and I walk.
"So, how are we distracting them again?"
"Thought I'd never say this…" Renara groaned. "Rythian, you do whatever you can to distract any that aren't distracted by Nick and I. Wing it."
"O-kaaayy…" I said. I watch Renara and Nick walk a little ways into the forest, until they were fairly close to most of the campers, but still in the trees.
"Nick, I still hate you for what you did to my book!" Renara almost shouts.
"Nah, you love me. It's just a book, anyway." Nick says loudly. It's like he said the magic word; the moment he said 'love' all heads turned to the conversation. Or argument, actually.
"That book was my father's!" Renara shouts and I suddenly realize what she's doing. She's getting her anger out on Nick at the same time as distracting most of cabin ten, and later she can say she was lying to distract them. Dam, she was clever.
Unfortunately there are still two guards paying attention. I step out at the same time Xephos, Lomadia and Ashley burst from the trees.
The Aphrodite campers still on guard, a blonde guy with greenish eyes and a girl with platinum braided hair, turn to fight them. Maybe twins?
I decide that since I just jumped out without a plan, I'll fight and hopefully not get hurt. I go after the girl, because she's closest, who spins around to face me. She draws her sword and stabs at me. I duck and try a slash, which she parries.
I get what they mean by our ADHD being battle instincts now; I react without thinking and I notice the campers listening to Renara and Nick argue; Lomadia swooping in like one of her beloved owls and grabbing the flag, Xephos helping her up when she stumbles on clods of upturned dirt, Ashley disarming the blonde boy easily with a swift blow to his hilt.
I try the same move on the girl, attempting to catch her hilt and twist it from her hands, but I over step and stumble at the same time. She steps sideways just as her blade goes flying from her hands. The sudden lack of force opposing my blade startles me and I hit the dirt. Thankfully my mask stops any from getting in my nose or anything.
I hear cries and complaints coming from the group of campers to my left, hearing the smoke bombs go off. Some girl screeches about her hair.
Before I get up, though, someone kicks my sword from my hand. I look up to see Belle and remember that she's Beckii's second in command. Meaning she has lots of training.
I roll away and manage to get to my sword. Belle has a dagger out but isn't using it.
"You know, I never did get to finish telling you about how cute Zoeya and Lalna are together…" She says, blinking innocently.
That does it. She knows it bugs me.
It's called charmspeak. She's taunting you. My gut says, like it's reading a book.
"Get out of there, Rythian!" Renara yells off to my left.
I feint a blow at Belle's face and she raises her blade to stop it, so I twist away and dash for the trees. She's surprised and takes off after me.
I hear and smell stink bombs going off behind me. Belle draws closer.
I sheathe my sword and dash for the thickest bush, hoping she won't follow me into it. Just as I jump over a bramble bush, her dagger smacks my leg. I hope it's not bleeding badly.
I race for the creek, hearing feet coming after me. When I dare to look over my shoulder, though, it's only Renara and Nick.
"Keep going! If they catch us we lose!" Ashley calls from up ahead.
Finally, we arrive at the creek, except it's a miniature battlefield. Arrows rain down from our side, and campers decked in red fight against a small group of heavily built campers with blue helmets from our side. I see Honeydew somewhere in the mix, so I'm guessing that it's Apollo and Hephaestus campers against Ares. Kim and Minty are nowhere in sight though.
Just as I get out into the open space, I see Ashley shove aside a red camper and lets Lomadia through, who's got Xephos' hand in hers as she drags him through the crowd. Someone on the bank tries to grab the flag, but Lomadia knocks him off his feet into the water. She and Xephos dash across the creek with Ashley in tow and cheers erupt the moment they set foot on the opposite bank. Lomadia almost trips the moment she leaves the water, but Xephos helps her up.
"Heck yes! Nice work!" Nick shouts behind me. Renara looks upset and steps away from him immediately, disappearing into the crowd. Apollo and Hephaestus campers converge and lift the three victors onto their shoulders. I get the feeling that Xephos isn't letting go of Lomadia's hand anytime soon.
I step carefully across the creek, feeling a sting of pain when water hit my left leg. I'm pretty sure Belle got in a cut on that last blow, but I can't see for myself in the dim light.
"Rythian! Isn't this fun? I mean, I'm not really into fighting and all, but it's so cool! And the forest is so big and awesome! What did you do? Where you in the other team's territory?" Zoeya says, bouncing out of nowhere with a huge smile.
"It's pretty cool. And I helped distract the campers around the flag so they could grab it." I say, happy that Zoeya was here. It sounds cheesy, but she was so cheerful all the time it was true.
The moment we stepped out of the creek, though, Zoeya gasped.
"Your leg is bleeding! Rythian, what did you do? Here, sit down on the rock, Sparkles* had me playing backup medic, I have stuff. Does it hurt?" The redhead fretted.
I rolled my eyes and sat down on the rock. "Not really. How was Teep?"
"Don't change the subject on me, Rythie. But Teep did great with his arrows. Hold still." She bent down and pulled the torn fabric of my loose pants away from the wound, which was sticky and probably bloody.
"You got a thorn in there; I'll have to pull it out, okay?" Zoeya said; grabbing what looked like tweezers from a small pack. "There, I'll bandage it up. Keep it clean, okay?"
"Thanks, Zoeya. You're fast at this." I praise her as she finds bandages and wraps them around my leg.
"My mom did use to be a nurse, don't forget. I picked up stuff when I was little." She says. "Hold still, you're fidgeting!"
"Sorry." I say. "ADHD."
"I know." Zoeya moans. "It can be so annoying at times, right?"
"Yeah." I say as she helps me up off the rock.
"Blue team wins!" Chiron announced as the campers cheered like crazy behind.
"Yeah, and Xephos and Lomadia are the ones who scored!" Honeydew yelled. Laughter and hoots, even wolf-whistles follow. I look over in time to see them finish a kiss.
"It's so sweet! I have to tell Kaeyi!" Zoeya says gleefully and disappears. Part of me was sad to see her go, but I brushed it off.
"Hey, nice work out there dude." A guy says behind me. I turn to see Nick.
"Thanks. Those bombs were pretty good too." I reply.
"You know," Nick drops his voice. "Around here, it's mostly said that if a girl beats you up she's into you." My stomach drops. Is he implying that Belle likes me? Then why charm speak?
"But," He says with a sneaky grin that makes me not want to trust him. "If they patch you up, then you know they care for sure." He winks and slides into the crowd with a James Bond impression.
He meant Zoeya.
I'm glad my mask covers my grin, because it would be pretty hard to explain.
EDIT(*A FEW HOURS LATER*) So, now that this is done...
I know 8 of you have already seen this chapter for today, but oh well
100 years ago, today, the first shots were fired in WWI.
Take a moment of silence for the 37 million people that died, would you? Please? -SpiritedandLoyal